03/23/2026
Just returned to Santa Cruz after a week at the Esalen Center for Theory and Research, taking part in a conference on the Subtle Body and the Martial Arts hosted by my main Daoist genius loony tune brethren Simon Cox and his Subtle Body Initiative.
Holy cannoli! How to put the past week into words!? I’ve a lot of synthesizing and distillation to do, and I’m working on something, but for now…
Let’s just say it was easily one of the best weeks of my life. I made friends for life… whether they like it or not. Some of the most fascinating, evocative, humbling, moving, and gut-punishingly funny conversations I’ve been involved in.
The Daoist body is a gloopy soup of plural agencies, somehow wriggling their way into a brief moment of coherence. Yet with the right nurturance, that temporary coalescence distills into something more enduring… what the tradition calls the immortal body. This past week, with everyone’s unique contribution and synthesis in discussion, I think we cultivated the elixir of a greater body. Not yet stable… it’s still flickering between formation and dissolution, but it’s alive in a way that doesn’t quite belong to any of us.
It’s still an embryo, but to me, an immortal one, nevertheless. Thanks to everyone.